ShashiTharoor twitting avout VISA !

http://twitter.com/ShashiTharoor .. "Hey there! ShashiTharoor is using Twitter !" .. I admire & respect this new age politician. He is the real Gen 'X' or 'Y' representative.

But I do not agree with his latest feed about the VISA regulations. Can he go & ask the USA Govt. to redice the BODY fresking or the latest (1 day old) additional regulations ? I guess he will find those justifying.

Same lines, I find the new VISA rules for India justifying. After all we have to take care of our problems & it is to be done our way.

Does UK or USA care if we ask them to reduce the sever checks that they do for granting VISA + the stringent regulations that they have ? I guess no, they would not bother.

Same way, if a person has to come to India for abusiness purpose & has to do multiple entries, he / she should obtain the correct VISA & not mis-use the "tourist" VISA. I guess that is all, no more discussions.

If this makes us "un-welcoming", yes, so be it & if tourists fell that they get a better experience in India, they will take the pain & gett he VISA. Same for business flyers, they do not come to India for charity, they come for business & for making money, then they should ask for correct Business VISA.

Google Maps showing Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir outside INDIA ?

This is totally unacceptable & bizzare. Google should not do politics. Arunachal Pradesh is very much part of independent INDIA. There is no dispute.

- English version in my browser is showing it as "not" in INDIA or "desputed" area
- Same for Jammu & Kashmir
- In Chinese version Arunachal Pradesh is shown as part of China

This is sad & not acceptabel at all.

MLAs in Karnataka should be ashamed !

It is really shameful that during the tough times of flood, the MLAs are giving more importance to "money" & "power" then to help their own voters by co-ordinating the relief work.

For last 2 weeks now, there is a BAD drama being played between Bangalore - Delhi - Bellari.

1. Couldn't the Reddy brothers wait till atleast the relief work is done & the affected voters are settled ?
2. Should one be always opportunistic ?
3. It is known that all the miners are just minting money by illegal enchroments on forest land. When they are earning lakhs with every over-loaded iron ore lorry, what is the issue of paying Rs. 1000/- that will go in re-building houses for the flood affected voters ?
4. Have our MLAs not evolved not to tolerate a women colleague in the ministry ?

Concept of mid-term-elections at this point is too -much to think of. This is clear case of an "insult" of the mandate that Karnatak population has given to BJP & a back-door possibility for the JD (S) to come to power & start making hawak :-(

It is just frustrating to see all what is happening.

Easy Cabe (43434343) are really easy !

This is my recent experience.

We (family: 2 Male + 2 Female + 1 kid) wanted to reach Yashantpur railway station from NGEF, Old Madras Road. Of-course with 6 - 7 luggage items. Take an auto & reach your destination. Sounds simple !

Not in Bangalore & definately not with the "auto" at all.

There are two auto stands near our complex, JalVayu Towers. Every auto was ready to come to Yashantpur but at his own cost which was Rs. 190/-. The distance is 17 KM max & by meter it costs Rs. 120/-. So a demand of Rs. 20/- extra is justified but not Rs. 70/-. At-least I do not understand for what reason they demand more. We wanted to 2 autos & tried a bargain of Rs. 350/- for 2 but no, they saw a chance to make money & were not bugging at all :-(. We had no choice, we hired them & did the journey from home to railway station in all noise & pollution & paid Rs. 380/-.

Now, the return journey, & the scene changes all-together:

• We are on our way back to Bangalore & train will terminate at Yahsvantpur.
• But we have learned our lession 7 days back. So 1 hr before approaching Yashvantpur, I call Easy Cabs (080-43434343).
• They take my request & tell me that they will confirm in 5 min if the arrangement is possible by SMS.
• In 5 min I get an SMS with cab no. & driver cell no.
• After reaching Yashvantpur railway station, I call the cab driver & patchup with him. Go out of the railway station & board the cab with 4 of us & our luggage.
• We have a comfortable & smooth journey from Yashvantpur Railway Station back to NGEF, Old Madras Road, in an AC cab, no noise, no pollution.
• Upon reaching the destination, the cab meter shows Rs. 250/- & the driver is happy to take his money & leave.
• No unpleasent talk of "saaar, give Rs. 20/- more then meter, you make lots of money".

So one way we paid Rs. 380/- & were exposed to noise & pollution + the unpleasent bargain. On way back, it was nice & smooth at the cost of Rs. 250/-.

I'm sure this should be the experience of every IT guy in Bangalore, some or other time. Why do auto drivers in Bangalore see "bakra" in every customer ? Are we IT guys making money without any work ? Are we making money at their cost ?

Imagine this happens to a guy / girl who is starting for a good work like interview or to see his girlfriend or to see his prospective bride or to go to a temple ? His / her event gets spoiled :-(.

I'm now a happy customer of Easy Cabs !

Sripuram, modern day temple ? New age Business ?

Sripuram (Golden Temple South, Vellore) appears to be a money making machine. A modern day business of faith. This is how it came across to me:

- Had herd about this form my friends & though of making a 1 day trip with family there. I was told to be there in the evening.
- Started at 8 AM, via old-madras-road, pass K R Puram. The road is good (managable) & small compared to the Hosur-Krishnagiri stretch. And reached Vellore by 1 PM. Had our lunch & headed towards Sripuram. On the way we spent about 1 hr at the Vellore fort.
- As we reached Sripuram, it appeared to be a fortress. Parked my car & this is where the encounter with the business machine started:

1. No mobile phones allowed inside.
2. Foot-ware stand is just a big hall & visitors (I' not sure if all were devotees) have to buy a plastic bag for Rs. 2/- to keep foot-ware of all the family together.
3. When I tried to reason this with the Public Relation (PR) officer, he appeared very very arrogent.
4. He told me that the temple is some 1 & 1/2 yrs. old & a foot-ware stand may take another 1 & 1/2 yr.
5. He was quick to identify that the plastic bag that I purchased is biodegradable.
6. Upon persisting more, he asked me to get lost if I'm not intereasted to get in & I'm free not to visit.
7. At 2 PM the crowd was not so huge but still the temple volunteers were discouraging visitors to buy Rs. 100/- entry ticket sighting the reason that free darshan will take 2 hrs waiting.
8. We bought into the idea & got tickets for 5 of us. Even though it is a clear entrance ticket, it says "seva" & "entry is free". Whom do they want to fool here ?
9. On our way in, visitors from free queue also got mixed with us & they told the waiting was about 30 min. So I paid my Rs. 500/- for no reason :-(
10. As expected the -in (& later way-out) passes through their shopping mall seling silk saree, agarbatti, small momentos, & many more articles.

Once you get into the actual temple premises, you feel better & surroundings resemble to any resort. Then you are made to walk the START shaped path, about 1+ KM.

1. Along this path also, you see more counters selling water then taps with free water.
2. Many boards boasting about the place. 1 was very intereasting, justifying that spending money for a tourist spot is more important then spending it for building school :-(
3. The central temple is nice & attractive with gold plating all over. I herd some 300 KG (or tons) of gold is used. I felt sad, that such a huge money can be used for so many more causes :-( Even if it is somebody's BLACK money, can be used for a better cause.
4. This golden temple is surrounded by water & the pond has 1,000s of Indian currency coins & notes dropped by devotees (?). Again a waste of money & the basic cost of printing these notes. RBI shoudl take a note of this.
5. I think it is easy to have a small net covering the pond to catch the offerings, but again like the foot-ware stand, I think, they do not have money. Or they want it to be like this for more devotees (?) to see & drop more money there.
6. A BIG difference that I observed is: depending upon the money shelling capacity of the visitors, they are divided into 3 groups: free, Rs. 100/- & Rs. 250/-. The more you spend the closer you get to the god.

Unlike Tirupati where everybody gets to see the god from same place, & money helps you to spend less or more time in the queue. Here the free queue is all the time kept at a distance from god :-(

Obama equates India with Pakistan & N Korea

Article in esakal -- http://beta.esakal.com/Article/ArticlePage.aspx?Id=B2615F61-FE5C-4CCB-B3EF-020C1E5E7E0F

And Obama's speech does not refer to Isrial :-(

This shows the double standards that USA has for Isrial & rest of the world. It is a clear indication that Obama is also not a different person & he is also working under Isrial lobby in the USA.

Should L K Advani be more careful ?

Meet the leady of the house (DNA, Bangalore, 04-Jun-09, page - 9)

This article carrys reactions from: Meira Kumar, LK Advani & Manmohan Singh. Advani's comments are really striking & look out of place "I read that your voters are disappointed with your election as speaker but I feel you will be able to serve people better in this position then as a minister". What does this mean ? Does this mean she is better to be a speaker then a minister ?

Celebrating 31st DEc vs Chaitra Shukla Pratipada !

http://www.sanghparivar.org/welcome-the-new-year-by-celebrating-samvatsararambh-chaitra-shukla-pratipada

I believe in trying to protect Hindu culture, we are bashing events like 25th Dec (x'mas Day), 31st Dec (new yr eve) & 14th Jan (Valentine Day) too much. This will back fire. We should understand that now a days all the days & events & festivals are governed by a strong market force & electronic media. They want to sell things & they sell it on each & every ocassion. They hardly distinguish if its a Hindu, Muslim or Christian event.

Moreover everybody is having a party, drinks, etc on 31st Dec & this shows that at least the Hindus have not started treating it as any Brahma muhurta. Where as many observe Brahma Muhurta on the ocassions of Chaitra Shukla Pratipada, Diwali & many other regional events.

Does the author thinks that if I party on 31st Dec, I have dis-respect for Chaitra Shukla Pratipada ? This way of thinking & writing is not going to be accepted by normal janata, this will surely back fire. if you have observed, these kind of tactics have back0fired during recent Delhi elections.

BJP, ShivSena, VHP, BajrangDal & to a large extent Sangh Parivhar should start thinking a on the improved lines now. We cannot create fear psychosis anymore.

One thought -- instead of bashing others we should try & propagate our culture the way Christians are doing. Get market & media to support Hindu culture, festivals, events, etc the same way they support 25th Dec, 1st JAN, 14th JAN, etc. This will not happen easily. We have to give market & media what 25th Dec, 1st JAN, 14th JAN, etc gives, that is spending. When Hindus spend during Diwali, the markets & media push it. They will do the same for each & every Hindu festival if we give them what they need.